The invention concerns methods for automatically identifying microorganisms collected on a carrier that are particles, airborne or present in water, in the form of fungal spores and bacteria.
As is known in the art, the identification of airborne particles or particles present in water is done by collecting these particles on a carrier. This carrier is advantageously positioned in a channel or at the end of a channel for supply air or water. In this connection, the carrier is a filter or a body with a coating of an adhesive. After collection, the particles are incubated on culture media in microbiological laboratories. After several days, an analysis of the colonies obtained in this way can be done. The colonies that all can be traced back to only a single collected germ are coarsely preexamined manually in regard to color, shape, and structure. A more precise determination of the species of germ is possible only after their individualization as well as growth tests and metabolic tests. This usually takes several weeks. Also, the identification of these colonies is done manually.
The invention has the object to automatically identify microorganisms collected on a carrier that are particles, airborne or present in water, in the form of fungal spores and bacteria.